Fact-check: The false claim of Indian TV news channels ban in Bangladesh debunked 

Claim:

Users on social media claimed that TV viewers in Bangladesh are no longer getting Indian news channels including Doordarshan (DD), Republic TV, Republic Bangla, Zee News, NDTV, Wion, Aaj Tak, India Today, CNN-18, CNBC-18, Times Now, India News as those are accused by the Yunus government of “spreading disinformation”.

Similar posts can be found here and here.

Fact-check

To verify the claim, DFRAC investigation team probed the media reports on Google. The search provided no results in this regard.

Further, the team searched the official social media handles of the mentioned channels. No such update of the ban is provided in any of the accounts.

Digging further, DFRAC found that ZEE Network had been banned multiple times before for violating advertisement rules, not for spreading disinformation. On 02 April 2019, Information Minister Hasan Mahmud, said the government has not imposed any ban on the airing of Indian Zee Network, it has just executed the rules against the airing of advertisements in foreign TV channels. “According to subsection-19 (13) of the Cable Television Network Act, 2006, Bangladeshi advertisements cannot be aired on foreign channels. So we just issued show-cause notices to two cable operators for violating the law,” he had said.

The details can be found here.

However, the investigation found a case pending in the Bangladesh High Court, seeking the ban of Indian media. “A writ petition has been filed in the Bangladesh High Court seeking a ban on the broadcast of Indian TV channels in the country citing growing concerns over the impact of Indian media on Bangladeshi culture and society”, Dhaka Tribune reported on Dec 03, 2024. The case is still pending before the court.

Conclusion

From the investigation of DFRAC, it is clear that the viral posts claiming major Indian TV media broadcasters are banned in Bangladesh are false. While a writ petition requesting ban is pending in the Bangladesh High Court, no final decision has been made in this regard. Therefore, these claims are false.

Analysis: Fake